


Book of the Dying

by WindyRein



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, First War with Voldemort, Gen, I Don't Even Know, I'm Bad At Tagging, Necromancer Lily Evans Potter, Necromancy, POV Female Character, POV Lily Evans Potter, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 04:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18513691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WindyRein/pseuds/WindyRein
Summary: Or How to Kill a Dark Lord Efficiently and Without a Year(s) Long Fetch Quest and Child SoldiersOr the one where Lily's a necromancer and it changes surprisingly few things but those things are pretty big





	Book of the Dying

**Author's Note:**

> Alternatively titled: Little Prince Peverell
> 
> So, this happened. Instead of something actually productive (like the fucking [death is coming](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11462745) expansion *headdesk*) but yeeaaah... I was thinking about badass Lily actually doing something actively to save her baby and not just dying and hoping the most powerful Dark Lord in history (was he? i don't remember if that's actually what the books said) couldn't kill a baby. (also, i have headcanons about muggleborns and magic but those are not important) And I've always loved necromancy and necromancers so that was the obvious solution.
> 
> Umm, enjoy?

Lily had always been able to see the dead. She never really talked to them or acknowledged them, and when she learned about magic she figured it was something all magicals could do.

She was wrong. She asked Sev about the dead once (there was no way they could be anything else when some of them looked completely normal and some had awful wounds or even missing body parts) and he told her about ghosts. She listened and asked a few questions and that night lying in bed thinking about what he'd said and what she knew, she came to the conclusion this was something different.

When she went to Diagon Alley for the first time she met Gertrude. Gertrude had died in the 1600s at the hands of a necromancer. A false one, she said, trying to reach for things that can only be gifted by the Gods or Magic Herself.

Gertrude was also the first of the dead to call her Young Mistress. She ran away at hearing that.

She ignored the dead even more in the time between going to Diagon and finally getting to Hogwarts.

She'd  spent near a month at the school when she met the Grey Lady. The Ravenclaw ghost looked her over for a long time before saying, "You cannot run from what you were given. You can ignore it and let it do what it wants or you can learn to control it and do what you want with it."

A week later she stumbled into a dark and dusty corner of the Library and found the Book of the Dying. She doesn't know why she picked it up and opened it. She doesn't know what compelled her to put the book in her bag and smuggle it out.

She hides the book and doesn't touch it until a week before All Hallows' Eve when she cracks it open in the privacy of her four-poster. She doesn't put it down until she's read the whole thing. Then she reads it again but this time takes notes.

She observes Samhain with Sev and then privately apologizes to all the spirits she's been ignoring.

(she starts doing things for the dead, small things, like writing down their family's names or describing the sky and her surroundings or just listening to their tale. they, mostly, thank her and vanish.)

***

Gertrude is waiting for her when she returns to Diagon Alley. She smiles at her and says she's doing a good thing. When Lily asks what Gertrude wants, the old woman laughs and says she's waiting for the Peverell.

Lily doesn't understand what she means. The Peverells vanished at the end of the first millennium. But she supposes, there's nothing she can do about that and if that's what Gertrude wants to do then who's Lily to stick her nose in it.

***

She doesn't talk about the dead to anyone. She doesn't do anything with the knowledge the Book of the Dying gave her. She doesn't do anything with the things the dead tell her. Not even when the war kicks into high gear. She doesn't even consider it until she finds out she's pregnant and Dumbledore shares the prophecy with her and James.

She listens to the wording and Dumbledore's worries and plans. She nods along as she's expected to and when Dumbledore's gone she tells James most prophecies she's ever heard of are self-fulfilling and she will not let their baby be forced into fighting the Dark Lord just because some fortune teller somewhere convinced Dumbledore it was the only way of defeating Voldemort.

James isn't as certain as she is about the whole prophecy thing being ridiculous and unnecessary but he doesn't try to change her mind. He grew up with stories about trying to go against prophecies just ending in the prophecy coming true. He grew with stories about the Oracles of Ancient Greece who were probably even right most times because they were Gifted by Apollo or Magic.

***

A week after Harry is born his eyes settle into the same bright green as hers. She's visiting Potter Manor with James and introducing the paintings of Potters long gone to their newest descendant when one of the dead, a Celtic warrior priest, she thinks, appears and bends down to look at Harry before taking a step back and bowing while saying, "Welcome, little prince".

That night she pulls out the Book of the Dying after James fell asleep trying to get Harry to sleep. She looks at her boys snoring together on the couch and feels only slight pity for James's neck in the morning but it's not like this is the first time this has happened so James should know better.

She reads and reads and pulls out her old Arithmancy and Ancient Runes texts and even some of her higher level Charms notes and starts crafting a spell.

It'll be both spell and ritual and a tiny fraction ward and if she gets everything absolutely right it will use her death to destroy Voldemort. If she does this right, that monster won't lay a finger on her baby.

And really, if her baby lives and gets to experience a life free of war and misery, she's willing to do anything to make that happen.

***

Months go by and nothing happens.

Months and months and Harry turns a year-old.

Months and months and it's All Hallow's Eve and their front door gets blasted off its hinges.

And James is yelling at her to take Harry and run.

And she's racing towards the nursery. She hears spell fire and wonders, just for a moment, if James might survive and then, "Avada Kedavra!" and she wants to cry but she can't.

And Harry looking at her with unnaturally solemn eyes and she slashes her palm open and slaps it on a corner of Harry's crib.

And footsteps on the stairs.

And "stand aside, foolish girl."

And she looks at Harry, holds her head high and tells the Dark Lord, "No!"

And she sees green light, begs Magic, begs _the Dead_ that this will work.

(she doesn't see it but the room flashes red and green and then silence, with only harry looking at his mother's corpse and the scorch marks the contained magical implosion of the dark lord had left)

***

(you cannot master death for death is inevitable and in the end takes all. you can, however, master the dead when the dead choose.)

**Author's Note:**

> Missed tags are appreciated and reviews are loved. :)
> 
> Also, if I'd ever actually write them, Harry's Hogwarts years would involve a lot of Harry being exasperated at Dumbledore's increasingly outlandish attempts to mould him into some kind of weapon since Dumbledore's convinced Voldemort's not actually dead (like canon! but, you know, with Harry actually knowing the fuck's going on the entire time) as well as befriending pretty much the whole school meanwhile also unnerving them since he keeps talking to dead people no-one else can see. Oh, and James would get to play single-(dead)-dad. (lily, unfortunately, was consumed/destroyed/killed by the ritual. probably.) Also, Sirius wouldn't do the idiotic thing and would actually care for Harry before taking revenge on Pettigrew (which would probably involve getting pettigrew thrown in azkaban)
> 
> Also, also, Voldemort's extremely dead.
> 
> Aaaand, like always, I'm feeling like I'm missing something so tell me if you find it :D
> 
> (also, semi-randomly on [tumblr](https://poutingtrolltroll.tumblr.com/) and sometimes i even post writing updates \o/)
> 
> **edit:** OH! and by the way, if you feel inspired to write out the Hogwarts years or your own version of this whole story line, feel free :) I'd just like to know about it when it's posted, so I can read it :D


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